“Why should I repeat this to you, you know it already?
“Only because it is a visible link in the chain of our destiny.
“That long summer, Abel, we spent together! That long summer, every day of which drew our hearts nearer and nearer! Even my father, who was ever most reserved to all but oldest friends and nearest kin, came to love you like a son.
“I—feeling then, for the first time, all the bitter significance of my own antecedents—resisted the sweet influence that was flowing into my soul, yet—resisted it in vain!
“You know how silently our love grew, during those delightful weeks and months we lived and traveled together.
“I knew then, though we might never marry in this world, even as I know now—though this confession may part us for this earth—that we are mates for all eternity.
“There came a day, at last, when we were all in the ancient city of Grenada, that you went to my father and asked his consent to win me for your wife. He told you that he would have a talk with me first, and then give you an answer.
“My father came to me and told me all that had passed between himself and you, and of your proposal for my hand, and he asked me how I felt disposed toward ‘Mr. Force.’
“Oh! the bitter sweet of that moment.
“I told my father I felt so well disposed toward you, that but for my past calamity and its living evidence I should accept your hand.